Copper, used in plumbing pipes and electrical wiring, fell by 2.7 per cent on the day, while aluminium lost 2.5 per cent and nickel shed 2.6 per cent.

Oil also declined on lower growth expectations, closing just a fraction above the $100/barrel mark to extend its 2013 losing streak to nearly 18 per cent. Some of the FTSE100’s biggest firms felt the pain, with the list of the day’s biggest fallers dominated by the index’s giant miners.

Gold miner Fresnillo fared worst, losing 15 per cent to close at 1080p, with copper and gold specialist Kazakhmys not far behind, down 9 per cent to 340.8p.

African Barrick Gold and Randgold Resources fell 9 per cent and 8 per cent respectively, while the rest of the fallers were miners or oil firms.

The gold sell-off was partly due to expectations that central banks will begin unwinding stimulus measures in an effort to curb inflation.

The precious metal is often bought as a hedge against inflation, losing value on the expectation of any measures to keep a lid on prices. Analysts also cited fears that Cyprus could set a precedent for struggling eurozone economies by selling off its gold reserves, flooding the market.

But economic forecasters Capital Economics said the two scenarios were neither imminent nor likely enough to warrant such a market sell-off, blaming over-excited traders. ‘Once trading calms down, we expect gold to stage at least a partial recovery,’ they said.

But analysts were less optimistic about prospects for non-precious metals.‘China makes up 40 per cent of demand for base metals and all the growth in demand for oil is coming from the developing world, so to see weakness in China is bad for commodities generally,’ said Nic Brown, head of commodities research at City firm Natixis.